Chief Minister Grama Vikasa

Grama Vikas (GV) is a rural development organisation based in Mulbagal Taluk, Kolar District, Karnataka, India’s southernmost state. It works with poor and marginalised people, notably women and Dalits, to achieve integrated rural development. GV’s first initiative, launched in 1980, was in child development, via a feeding programme. GV integrated women’s development and NRM as significant components of its development policy over the second decade of its work. Dalit women make up about 75% of the community with whom GV works.

We previously worked in all 164 villages in Raichur taluk and are currently gathering resources to work in Raichur taluk of Raichur district with an integrated approach addressing children’s integrated development (nutrition, health, education, and children’s rights) and women.

Grama Vikas was founded by the late Dr N K A Iyer, whose vision still leads the organisation today. The Governing Board of GV is made up of distinguished individuals, including retired IAS officers and development specialists.

Grama Vikas is a society registered under the Karnataka Societies Registration Act 1960. Its Governing Board is made up of distinguished individuals who have made significant contributions in numerous sectors of effort.

Objective

Grama Vikas’ goal is to facilitate the sustainable development and empowerment of marginal rural communities, with a focus on children, people-centred natural resource management, the institutionalisation of democratically elected grassroots people’s organisations, and the food security of the poorest.

1. Allow children to exercise their right to a happy, healthy, and productive childhood.
2. Enable rural poor families to improve their natural resource base and generate income sufficient to meet their basic needs, with a focus on Food Security;
3. Enable communities to revitalise the natural environment for the benefit of small and marginal farmers;
4. Facilitate the Federation of Women’s SHGs to manage and sustain women’s development activities;
5. Network with other NGOs to have a broader impact on common issues; and • Conduct public education/advocacy.

Policies

1. Working for the whole development of poor children;
2. Working with rural poor, notably Dalit communities in semi-arid areas;
3. Breaking community dependency and moving them toward self-help in development;
4. Networking with like-minded NGOs, institutions, Civil Society, and the media to influence public policies and programmes;
5. Advocating for tank revitalization with public participation;
6. Collaborating with the government on natural resource management and sustainable livelihoods programmes for the poor;
7. Developing replicable development models.

Impacts of intervention

Child growth and development

1. School enrolment is nearly 100 percent among both boys and girls;
2. School drop-out rate among children under 15 years of age is reduced to 28 percent among boys and 36 percent among girls in 105 villages in the project area, from 50 percent among boys and 75 percent among girls;
3. Child labour incidence has been reduced to about 10% among boys and 20% among girls, from about 50 percent among boys and 75 percent among girls;
4. A Children’s Federation has been established, and a children’s savings programme has been begun and stabilised.

Management of Natural Resources

1. GV’s public education/advocacy has contributed to tank restoration becoming a priority on the State Government’s policy agenda;
2. GV has developed people-centered and replicable tank restoration strategies through partial desilting of 22 tanks in the project area;
3. GV has assisted a number of farmers in arresting soil erosion through field bunding and planting saplings on the bunds in 2,000 hectares of dry lands;
4. In five communities, GV has implemented repeatable community need-based social forestry models.